Thanh Chuong district voters propose to soon build a rigid bridge across Giang River

Reply:

According to the Report of the Road Administration Department II: Provincial Road 533 was converted into National Highway 46C in Decision No. 358/QDBGTVT dated February 9, 2017 of the Minister of Transport, the Road Administration Department II took over management, maintenance and exploitation from April 1, 2017.

Comrade Le Hong Vinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Deputy Head of the Provincial Traffic Safety Committee inspected the repair and renovation work of Giang River suspension bridge. Photo: Cong Kien

On the route, there are 07 weak bridges with limited load capacity and narrow bridge width, especially the Song Giang suspension bridge at Km105+970, built and put into operation in 1987 according to rural traffic bridge standards with a design load of 8 tons and narrow bridge width B=4.25m.

Currently, the bridge is no longer suitable and not synchronized with the increasing load and traffic on the route, so it cannot meet the needs of transportation, circulation of goods as well as the economic development of the locality on both sides of the Giang River.

Giang River suspension bridge, also known as Chua market suspension bridge, connects Thanh Lien and Phong Thinh communes (Thanh Chuong). Photo: Huy Thu

On March 25, 2020, the General Department of Road Administration submitted Document No. 50/TTr-TCDBVN to the Ministry of Transport for decision on the investment policy of the Project to renovate, upgrade and construct new bridges to replace weak bridges on a number of national highways, including the proposal to build 07 new weak bridges on National Highway 46C (the new Song Giang Bridge on National Highway 46C has an estimated cost of about 68 billion VND) using capital from the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2021 - 2025.

However, in Decision No. 1535/QD-TTg dated September 15, 2021 of the Prime Minister on the assignment of the medium-term public investment plan of state budget capital for the period 2021 - 2025, the Ministry of Transport was allocated 304,104 billion VND, which is only enough to focus on arranging capital to handle outstanding debts, complete transitional projects, invest in connecting the entire North-South expressway, a number of important expressways and a number of dynamic projects, a number of urgent works, and handle bottlenecks in other transport sectors.

Therefore, many urgent projects serving the socio-economic development of localities have not yet balanced capital sources for investment, including the Project to renovate, upgrade, and build new bridges to replace weak bridges on some of the national highways mentioned above.

While waiting for the construction of a new bridge, in 2021, the Road Administration Department II submitted a proposal to the Vietnam Road Administration for permission to invest in emergency repairs of the Song Giang suspension bridge. The project has now been completed with the goal of ensuring traffic safety and maintaining the bridge's operational capacity.

The Road Administration Department II has directed the Road Administration Sub-Department II.3 and the Traffic Works Management and Construction Joint Stock Company 487 to strengthen regular maintenance, regular patrolling and inspection of the bridge. At the same time, continue to report and propose to the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam and the Ministry of Transport to consider building a new bridge as soon as possible based on the resources allocated to the Transport sector./.